Search Results for: against the current

Napster’s still down, and there’s no telling when it’ll be back up again. As the file-sharing service headed for the fifth day of its longest service outage ever on Thursday (July 5), the company couldn’t say when users would be able to start swapping songs again. Since early Monday morning, Napster has blocked all file transfers, blaming problems in assembling the database needed for its new filters, which use acoustic fingerprinting technology. The new filters should allow Napster to block files based on musical content instead of simply relying on user-provided filenames. “Napster’s goal is to start file transfers again… Read more »

The advent of file-swapping technologies such as Napster and the digitization of the written word have prompted a deluge of high-profile intellectual-property lawsuits. Federal filings of intellectual property lawsuits have increased 24 percent since 1996. Pending court battles may decide everything from what a book is to whether artists (or their fans) have the right to distribute works without the blessing of entertainment companies. Freelance photographers are even closing their shutters against magazines such as Forbes and Vanity Fair over the issue of payment for republishing their images on the Web. Vivendi Universal has so many court battles boiling, it… Read more »

Courtney Love has blocked the surviving members of Nirvana – Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic – from releasing one of the band’s final tracks, and she’s suing them for control of the group’s legacy. A Seattle judge has granted Love a preliminary injunction preventing the release of a Nirvana song called “You Know You’re Right,” which Grohl and Novoselic planned to include on a Nirvana box set due this fall. Nirvana recorded the Kurt Cobain-penned tune in January 1994, three months before his suicide. “The fight is over control of Nirvana,” said Warren Rheaume, attorney for Grohl and Novoselic. “Hopefully… Read more »

Compared to a year ago at this time, MTV and Eminem are locked in a very reluctant embrace. MTV has agreed to play a new video by Eminem’s group, D12, but only during the overnight hours and only after several days of negotiations with the rap star’s record label, Shady Records/Interscope Records. The video for “Purple Hills,” the album’s lead track, had to be cleaned up to minimize overt drug references, MTV spokeswoman Jeannie Kedas said on Tuesday. “We had a dialogue with the label and they provided us with an acceptable version for our air,” she said. MTV will… Read more »

Universal recording artist NELLY has been nominated for three 2001 Source Music Awards in the categories of Single of the Year for his smash hit “Country Grammar;” New Artist of the Year; and Album of the Year for his 6x platinum disc Country Grammar. The St. Louis-based rapper is competing for the awards against artists such as OutKast, Ludacris, Mystikal, Jay Z, Snoop and Eminem. In just one year, NELLY has received over ten nominations since the release of his top-selling debut, Country Grammar, last June. The talented rapper has won several awards – a 2001 Soul Train Music Award… Read more »

For the third consecutive Friday, litigants in the ongoing battle between webcasters and the recording industry have filed suit against each other, this time over the venue of the proceedings. In a legal action that equates essentially to a procedural step asking the court to consolidate all legal proceedings involving the Digital Media Association and its member companies, the RIAA has filed a motion against MTVi, MusicMatch, and Xact Radio. Today’s action marks the third straight week in which one party in the ongoing battle over rules in the DMCA legislation has filed suit against another. The RIAA today asked… Read more »

The heavy metal community is uniting to help save one of its own. Death metal forefather Chuck Schuldiner, of the band Death, has been battling a malignant brain tumor for two years, and is currently undergoing expensive experimental treatments in an effort to save his life. So, various artists – including Korn, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Kid Rock and Slipknot – are auctioning off memorabilia on Allbeat.com to help Schuldiner’s family pay his medical bills. Since the auction began on June 1, Allbeat.com has received total bids of over $1,000. Among the items for which bids have been placed… Read more »

Christina Aguilera filed a lawsuit on May 18th in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles against the singer’s one-time producers and New York City-based Warlock Records, among other defendants. The suit seeks cost of suit damages and an injunction to stop the release of Just Be Free, a compilation of demos Aguilera recorded when she was fourteen. The album features twelve tracks, including the title track, which Aguilera worked on with defendants, producers Michael Brown and Robert Allecca at BAM Records, Inc. Included in the charges are breach of contract and appropriation of name, voice and likeness for commercial use.… Read more »

Columbia Records’ Crazy Town, Portrait/Columbia Records’ The Union Underground and American Recordings/Columbia Records’ American Head Charge have all signed on-board on what just might be the heaviest Ozzfest ever. Following a big British blow-out at the Milton Keynes Bowl in England on May 26, Ozzfest 2001 opens full-force stateside at the World Amphitheater in Chicago, Illinois. Launched by the heavy metal pioneer and visionary Ozzy Osbourne, the first Ozzfest, a multi-band festival held in 1996, hit only two markets-Los Angeles and Phoenix-but paved the way for a full-on touring extravaganza the next year. Since then, the Ozzfest has become a… Read more »

Maybe the Recording Industry Association of America had better watch its back. The Recording Artists Coalition – which counts founder Don Henley, Sheryl Crow, and Alanis Morissette among its members – is making strides toward becoming a formidable opponent. The RAC, which claims that the RIAA doesn’t always operate in the best interests of artists, has recently hired an executive director, laid out plans for offices in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., and folded another high-profile artists’ rights group under its wing. In March, Henley said the RAC boasted 57 high-profile members, including Billy Joel, Eric Clapton, and Bruce Springsteen.… Read more »